Everyone is super nice and friendly. The company makes an effort to help everyone feel like a valued member of the team. Hard work is very valued.

Cons

I didn't always feel comfortable voicing my opinions especially when I disagreed with what seemed to be the overall of the organization. They have a strong culture and sense of values, and if you can buy into it all, that's great. I respected and appreciated their values and mission, but didn't always agree with how they went about fulfilling them.

Great coworkers, sense of family, laidback environment, growing company

Cons

You have to live and breathe the culture or else you will hate working here. VERY difficult to become fulltime. Many temps find another job at another company before they complete the entire hiring process. Work life balance is a miss... They value culture over ability. Low-average pay compared to other similar companies. CEO's way or get out.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Relax on the culture. Compensate associates based on industry standards.

Great people to work with and awesome work environment. Very flexible hours and free gym access. Sometime there is free food at work.

Cons

If you are a temporary position and trying to get in as permanent, Good luck. Chances of getting hired is pretty slim. For you to be consider to be hired, you will have to take Landmark (a self improve course) which you will have to pay out of your own pocket and it was not cheap($450) and there are multiple classes after that. About 90% of the associates in the office does not agree with landmark nor do they want to take it. Also you need to get involve with company by living the culture and values.which I don't mind at all because some of the outside activities were great experience. The interview process can take up to 6 months to a year which includes lots and endless hours of coaching session with HR and your manager just to prep up to meet with the CPO and eventually the founder. One reason why I find this interview ridiculous is because none of the question they ask relate to my work, but my personal life. It's great that they care about me, but it is unnecessary for them to dig into my life to see if I was worthy to be part of this company. What does my relationship with friends and family got to do with my work or how I grew up should not matter of why I belong. I have seen many great people that do so much for this company but yet, they were let go because people above don't think they fit in the culture and values.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

My best advise is that great company but this hiring process that this company created has projected a bad image of the company. Many associates do not agree with what HR and people above are doing. The position I was pursuing was a low entry level position, but yet was treated as if I was in high position and pay was high. They need to give the Hiring Manager and VP of the department the power to hire the people that fits best for the department/company and not let HR determine if you are Panda material. Also, Landmark is a big deal to Panda, but why encourage everyone to take it when no one likes it or agree with it? You basically have to take it for consideration for hire or even promotion. Everything seems to be forced and everyone is afraid to speak up.

(for temp.)*Extremely difficult to become full-time*Use temps as FT employees*Will fire and rehire as temps after the one-year limit*voluntold self-help, self-growth classes

Advice to ManagementAdvice

middle management asks lower level employees to be real but themselves are faking to be real. No real competitor in the market so the company has no pressure to offer reasonable compensations to employee

- Friendly, helpful employees. Diverse ethnically, but skewed toward Asian.- Clean and nicely decorated office buildling, right off the freeway and away from Downtown LA.- Respectable company values and mission- Once hired permanently, good job security- Free gym and classes at HQ.

Cons

- Company culture goes way overboard, leading to fake personalities and employees making fun of management's actions.- Hiring process is unequal, long, tedious, expensive, and border-line illegal- Because hiring is so difficult, departments tend to run very thin, making it difficult to have time off or vacations. Also puts more stress on existing employees.- Average to below average compensation, made up by a "bonus" which can be altered at will.- If you're hired as temp, there's a good chance you won't get hired permanently unless you're a very specific personality.- CEO is out of touch with employees

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Get rid of the reliance on Landmark education. It's a cancer that 90% of employees hate. Panda might as well be a marketing arm of Landmark. About only 1 in 10 people actually enjoy landmark. Everyone else is faking it and as soon as management leaves the room the truth comes out. Requiring potential hires to understand Landmark before being hired, and not sponsoring them ethically wrong.

The employees in general, the low level staff, somewhat competitive pay and benefits. Growing company with lots of potential.

Cons

A bit cult-ish, lots of classes and personal development required, some have to pay yourself. A lot of the old school middle management need lessons on being more human. Their personalities are outdated.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Continue to retrain the old original middle management. Follow popular current business book teachings and take lessons from current great companies.

I left last year... salary was below average for the market, but I knew that going in. Friendly people, employees get 20% discount and there's a decent gym at HQ. Learned a bunch of new things. They run very lean here and love their contractors.. good thing is you'll be given so much to do and will learn a lot.

I wonder if the ramp still squeaks going into epaws.

Cons

You're going to burn out quick and if you ever want to be hired full-time, you must go through self-help courses and give up several Saturdays a year for pseudo fairy self-help classes. Kiss your free-time good-bye and God help you if you aren't Asian here. Panda went balls-deep into Landmark and you've got to plunk down several hundred per course to get hired or advance.

- Friendly co-workers. I met some of my closest friends here.- Decent benefits, such as 401k, 12-21+ days PTO depending how many years you have been there, learning benefit reimbursement (also see cons below), free classes/seminars, 20% off meals at Panda, free gym on site with classes, etc.- Good work experience. They also let you cross-train with other departments.- Panda Cares--the company encourages the employees to volunteer at local schools/hospitals to serve underserved kids.

Cons

- Cult-like. Before you were hired, you will most likely be asked to attend Landmark which is like a self-improvement seminar. The beginning class costs $355 if you tell them you're from Panda. Yes, they make you pay out of pocket.- Learning reimbursement applies to you if you have been with the company for 1 year. You are given $400/year, which is not that much at all.- Owners are very hands-on with the company and a big proponent of Landmark seminars. This leads to upper management "encouraging" you to take it.- HR has way too much power in deciding whether a person deserves a promotion/not. They give you excuses such as he or she has not been here for over 2-3 years, therefore cannot get a promotion. But you see other people who came in a year ago and got promoted.- Coworkers can be very gossipy. News travel very fast here.- They claim that it is a safe environment, but you still have to watch what you say if you don't want to get fired.- Saturday Learning Sessions. Depending how you look at it, can be beneficial for you or wastes your time. A session is held every 6-7 weeks and again, you are "encouraged" to attend. A speaker (usually some upper management from support center/operations) will talk about a book of the company's choosing about self-improvement. If I could choose, I would rather be provided the book and read myself than attend these. The speakers need to learn to stop reading off of the powerpoint slides.- Pay is very average

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Please stop making us take company-promoted classes such as Landmark (really just Landmark) to make yourselves look good. If you truly encourage a learning environment, let us choose what we want to learn.

No personal life you work weekends if you need to in order to complete projects. 50+ hours are common. There are some weekends events that you are "encouraged" to attend. Tough to get an A. There is always room for improvement even if you've accomplished and exceeded goals it's just acceptable.